Quebec government considering own international-aid agency

The Parti Québécois has asked an organization to study what a provincial international-aid agency could look like. (CBC)

The Quebec government is taking an initial step that could lead to the creation of its own international-aid agency that would run parallel to the Government of Canada's.

The pro-independence provincial government had raised the idea of wresting away Quebec's share of the Canadian International Development Agency budget, to create its own body, during the recent election campaign.

It's one of numerous ideas floated by the Parti Québécois under its plan for so-called "sovereigntist governance," which aims to loosen ties to Canada.

Now the provincial government has asked a Quebec association of development groups to study what such a provincial department should look like.

The PQ government says federal aid programs have become tainted by the priorities of the federal Conservative party.

The federal government has said it wants to increasingly pair aid efforts with Canadian mining projects abroad.

"CIDA has become tightly integrated into the economic development strategy of the Canadian government," said the province's International Relations Minister Jean-Francois Lisée, in a statement Wednesday.

"The values that traditionally guided Canadian international development policy, ones which were shared by Quebec, were gradually transformed.

"The notion of international solidarity now appears more and more marginalized."

A committee, led by the Quebec Association for International Solidarity, is expected to produce a report on the project by the end of 2013.